Maybe this is something that you have heard a lot about and people often talk about the importance of ‘self-care’. Yet, knowing how to tailor this to yourself and practice this in a sustainable way can be very challenging.
Self-care can look like many things and also it is important to recognize that there are three areas where self-care needs to be nourished and replenished. These three areas are physical self-care, social self-care and mental self-care. We can often forget to think about all three as part of the ways we replenish our fuel tanks/batteries.
Keeping it simple but consistent can be a great way to start and maintain self-care. Think about what you already do well and do more of it, especially if it is enjoyable to you. Or think about short time commitments, like instead of working out for 30 minutes, think about stretching for 5 minutes more regularly.
By reducing the expectations, and picking something simple and something that feels manageable, you may gain more success with self-care than applying perfectionism to self-care and expecting yourself to do this perfectly too.
I’ve written an article for students on ideas for these three types of self-care but you will likely also find something that could benefit you, if you are not sure of what small things could be a good starting place for you.
Remember, keep your expectations to something you can do even on a tough day and approach with curiosity instead of ‘shoulds’ and self-judgement.
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